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On This Day in 1772: Washington and Jefferson Snowstorm
January 26, 2022 at 10:47 PM EST
By WeatherBug's Ali Husain
On January 27, 1772, a massive snowstorm dumped three feet of snow on central and northern Virginia and the Washington area.
Official weather records did not begin until almost a century later under the War Department, in 1870. It wasn’t until 1891 that the Weather Bureau was established. However, weather observations have been taken throughout history, including by two of America’s founding fathers: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
The storm that dumped three feet of snow across much of Virginia and the Washington area was noted in both Jefferson and Washington’s diaries. Hence, the storm has since been named the Washington and Jefferson storm of 1772.
On the evening of the 26th, Jefferson noted “the deepest snow we have ever seen, in Albemarle it was about 3 [feet] deep” in his diary, The Garden Book. Monticello, Jefferson’s home, sits near the present-day city of Charlottesville. Later in his life, Jefferson noted that it was the most snow he’d ever observed.
George Washington’s home of Mount Vernon, sitting about 16 miles south of what is now Washington D.C., recorded similar observations. Washington’s observations were more detailed, noting that on the 27th, snow had accumulated to about 5 or 6 inches along with “dreadfully bad” weather. On the 28th, the “same snow continued [all day] with equal violence, [and] the wind being very cold and hard from the Northward drifting snow into banks”. By the next day, clear skies had overtaken the clouds, with Washington noting that “the snow being up to the breast of a Tall Horse everywhere”.
Several newspapers, including The Winchester Gazette and The Maryland Gazette, further corroborated Washington and Jefferson, with The Winchester Gazette reporting two feet and nine inches of snow.
Assuming that Washington and Jefferson had accurate observations, this snowstorm registers as the highest snowfall accumulation across much of Virginia and the Washington area through history. Other snowstorms come close; the Knickerbocker Storm of 1922 totaled 33 inches in Rock Creek Park in Washington, while the more recent Snowmageddon of February 2010 measured up to 32.4 inches.
Source(s): NWS, Keith C. Heidorn
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Story Image via Pixabay
Official weather records did not begin until almost a century later under the War Department, in 1870. It wasn’t until 1891 that the Weather Bureau was established. However, weather observations have been taken throughout history, including by two of America’s founding fathers: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
The storm that dumped three feet of snow across much of Virginia and the Washington area was noted in both Jefferson and Washington’s diaries. Hence, the storm has since been named the Washington and Jefferson storm of 1772.
On the evening of the 26th, Jefferson noted “the deepest snow we have ever seen, in Albemarle it was about 3 [feet] deep” in his diary, The Garden Book. Monticello, Jefferson’s home, sits near the present-day city of Charlottesville. Later in his life, Jefferson noted that it was the most snow he’d ever observed.
George Washington’s home of Mount Vernon, sitting about 16 miles south of what is now Washington D.C., recorded similar observations. Washington’s observations were more detailed, noting that on the 27th, snow had accumulated to about 5 or 6 inches along with “dreadfully bad” weather. On the 28th, the “same snow continued [all day] with equal violence, [and] the wind being very cold and hard from the Northward drifting snow into banks”. By the next day, clear skies had overtaken the clouds, with Washington noting that “the snow being up to the breast of a Tall Horse everywhere”.
Several newspapers, including The Winchester Gazette and The Maryland Gazette, further corroborated Washington and Jefferson, with The Winchester Gazette reporting two feet and nine inches of snow.
Assuming that Washington and Jefferson had accurate observations, this snowstorm registers as the highest snowfall accumulation across much of Virginia and the Washington area through history. Other snowstorms come close; the Knickerbocker Storm of 1922 totaled 33 inches in Rock Creek Park in Washington, while the more recent Snowmageddon of February 2010 measured up to 32.4 inches.
Source(s): NWS, Keith C. Heidorn
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Story Image via Pixabay